Question for Bear Bait hunters .

[bob baldwin jr]

Well my good chest freezer 20+ years old bit the dust over the week-end Luckily was able to salvage all the veggies and most of the meat still hard as a rock . What I was not sure about is a few fish 2 freshwater Salmon and a couple of Saltwater Cod , Blues ,and a Stripped bass . The wife does NOT want to take a chance on them so I put them in the Bear Bait Freezer .Al have heads and tails removed and of course gutted out.

In the past I have used all above mentioned on the Coyote bait pails . This year I am thinking about trying some in the bear bait mix A few questions Please :

1. Have you ever tried it ?
2 After 2 days it certainly STINKS up the AREA , GOOD or BAD ?
3. I tried it once on a Bluefish that I had cut into 2-3 inch strips but could not tell if the Bears , Yotes ,Crows or Coon ate it Any thoughts on that?
4. I was also considering not slicing it up and putting it on the pile whole .Any thoughts on that ?
5. Was talking with my Grand-daughter about this and she asked if Bears ate the whole head or not The few I have ever put out never lasted very long and when you see the pictures from Alaska and Northern BC ,I am assuming that they are eating the whole fish ,Is that Right or wrong ?

[wyoutfitter]

Fish of that kind can be AWESOME bear bait!! Way better than fish like carp, or suckers. Make sure to check that it's legal, some places game fish cannot be used as bear bait. To answer some of your questions,
The stink can be a good thing, but I've found that it's much better to keep it on the fresh side, still smelly, but not rotten. Once it gets real rotten, most bears will shove it aside.
I think that slicing it up or chunking it up is better. I've been sitting with hunters and had bears come in, grab a big fish and run off in the trees 30-40 yards out of range to eat the thing before we could get a shot.
I'm sure some bears will just eat the whole fish, the ones I've been around won't. They'll just lay down and pick at the parts they like, mostly the fillets. I still leave the heads and tails on just to make them work a little harder for it, and stick around just a little longer. There is usually a bunch of fish heads and bones laying around.
This is just what I've seen in my area over the years, obviously bears are probably different in behavior wherever you go. Hope it helps. Good luck!

[Cat track]

From what i seen they deffinetley don't like rotten food. It would be best to wait until they found the bait. I personally don't like to use meat or fish, just gets to be a mess after a while.

[bob baldwin jr]

Cat Track : I was going to wait till they started hitting the bait ,Just to see what they would do .This year we will be putting up a few cameras

[Emily]

bears raid garbage cans. they will eat almost anything depending on what else is available. will they eat rotten fish when the blackberries are out? probably not. will they grab your tuna sandwich if you leave it where its easy to get? Of course...
I don't like to advertise where my baits are by leaving a pile of stuff that stinks so bad you can smell it for a mile. Bears like sweet stuff. Coons like sweet stuff. Coyotes aren't as interested.